August 2021 - Seeing Red

[Zero.]

Y'all know what to do!

[Malva]

[Malva]

[Rudi]

Friday
- Skele bois! I loved them. I always love skeletons. They're chill.

Saturday Morning
- Totally didn't go out gathering with Ze at like 6:30. (tbf we didn't both get up for that purpose; he just thought the big ol group was going out then and I just wanted to be In The Woods and Not Alone.) The woods were empty anyhow.
- The tension in the air after breakfast was... palpable. To the point where when Charlotte showed up we raised an alarm since she came from the woods. Whoops.
- It Begins, for some hours Rakash showed up and fought us. The void mage was a pain in the arse, and we never did get him down.

Saturday Afternoon/Evening
- Godo himself made an appearance in the afternoon. It was. Awesome. Degren and auron keeping him down, I saw Krond hit him and call out All damage for the first time.
- Sadly, I died in one of the few moments where Degren and Auron faltered so I didn't actually experience the full battle. (I commited to the bit and was a corpse until they moved me into my bunk) BUT I was living vicariously through what I could hear.
- The rain was wild, the parts of the battle I did see were wild. I enjoyed hearing the celebration when we slew the honor guard. The entire town cheering out Krond's name. I loved it all and would do it again 1000%, even if I was dead for most of it.
- Dog made. A Reveal and I WASN'T going to bring Rudi back that weekend at all, but I heard it and was liked "well shit guess I gotta come back now huh." (It was good <3). I was super impressed by his emotional RP, too!
- Rosco yelled at my corpse, 10/10 would do again. I am a fucking asshole, he is right.  (It's okay that he may have accidentally punched me. Sometimes you get lost in the sauce.)
- Casted as Hollyhock, one of Lady Nimea's folks, for a bit! Was fun to join in some of the celebration.
- Came back in as Rudi around 8:30, I would've waited longer but nothing much was around what with the poison rain and the no animals. Coulda stayed as Hollyhock buuut her costume was Not Warm and I am Weak.
- Ceri was the first one to see her, cause I was in the room and Actually kind of nervous to come back in. It was a good moment. It was all good. She did come in during Dmitri so that was something.
- Fuuuck I love big surgeries like we had to do on Misty. It's always fun. My surgical kit is having a tube added for transfusions.
- Dog wanting to have A Conversation and me noping out of it so many times so hard that he thinks i'm mad or something. Whoops.
- God damnit Ceridwyn. God Damnit Val.
- Two truths and a lie was fun. I love u all.

Sunday
- Saw Lexicus for all of 2 minutes, then Aidan was OOG the rest of game! He went off with the Ceridwyn search party. Rudi would've gone, but SOMEONE had to remove that slime from Theo.
- It was nice, doing my first major surgery on my own (before it was just the goblin with the thorn). Theo didn't die OR bleed bc he was in a trance.  
- Marr did slime experiemts. Why? Idk he's Marr.

[Timmean]

Ahh, what a game, what a game!

Friday night:
-Skeletons! They’re classic, they’re simple, but they still provide a good night fight. Spawning from the moat was fun.
-Despite the wet weather, I was staying reasonably dry. Then I thought, “What if I spawned a skeleton that was just crawling?” I did not stay dry much longer.

Saturday morning:
-The oven omlettes came out beautifully; many thanks to Adrian, Sage, and Ryan for the great work they’re doing on meal plan this year!
-Morning Rakash! And afternoon Rakash! All the Rakash! There was lots of combat this game, and way too many good skirmishes to remember. Pierre, Auron, Degren, Taka, and Z all squared off against me several times.
-*In old man voice* Back in my day, we called for 3 wood, and we were happy with that! These days you young’uns are all out there with your point-cast and your 97-metal-bypass. *Insert exaggerated grumbling*
-In seriousness though, well done. You guys certainly went all-out  
-I witnessed from a distance as Rob introduced the bomb hammer. That was new.
-Also, it’s always handy to have a void mage around when you want to cause some chaos  
-When the moment finally came for Godo and the honour guard to come in, that was great. Getting in one last Khoros chant was also a blast.
-Once the fighting broke out, I slipped into the Astral plane pretty quickly, but Z followed. We were facing off there for a while before someone else (Taka, I think?) popped in and they had me outnumbered. It didn’t take too long after that for Khoros to go down. His body (and drum) are probably still in the astral plane, just in front of the gazeebo  
-Getting to spawn in as one of the teleporters was great. Throwing people off the balcony and into the spike pit was definitely worth it.
-I was preparing to respawn in the playground area when Godo did his poison rain thing. Knowing any new fighters would die to the rain, I just sat down at the edge of the treeline and watched the end of the fight play out. Good job y’all.
-While watching everyone join the anti-poison-leaf chain, I noticed Mar and Dimitri took quite a while to link up. I was wondering how they survived, and learned afterwards of an excessively realistic use of a stall potion.
-You guys earned some down-time after that. Besides, everything nearby was poisoned.

Saturday evening:
-Joining in as a butler when lady Nimean brought you all cake. It was fun to chill a bit and hear accounts of what happened. My thanks to Gull for a detailed rendition of the whole Godo story (which I understood, but my character certainly did not), as well as the performances of “Holdfast Life” and “The Slaying of the Plant.”
-We overheard several snippets of conversation that sounded a bit alarming, so we decided to make an exit around dusk. By that time, it was clear you guys were preparing for the next big danger.
-To keep out of the way, I watched OOG from the kitchen as everyone congregated in the inn for the Dimitri anti-werewolf procedure. On one hand, the tension was intense. On the other hand, there were a lot of characters in dangerously close proximity to a potential werewolf. I think Winnie was reading.
-Overhearing a shout of “skeletons!” and getting confused, pretty sure we had no skeletons out. I think someone got confused on account of the injured Misty.
-The whole ordeal was certainly dramatic and interesting, but with all of the history and research I was confident you guys had this figured out. You were clearly well-prepared and certain of what you were doing. I knew you would succeed, right up until the moment when a werewolf started plowing through the dining room tables  
-Christian and I followed outside to figure out what the plans were for cast. As a result, we got to see the deliberations in the field, and heard the start of the killing blow count. But there was too much hesitation, and moments later the werewolf was tearing across the field, into the forest.
-Sitting in cast cabin, I also got to witness as the off-site werewolf Dimitri, Ceridwyn, and tracking party ordeals were sorted out.
-All in all, it was quite a night. I wish I had some popcorn.

Sunday morning:
-Visiting town as a new arrow merchant; you can just call me Fletch. Made a few sales, and hopefully a few future customers.
-While hovering around, I overheard several tidbits of information. The most upsetting one being that one of the archers (and a potential good customer) was out on a forest expedition with no expected return time. Drat.
-I was chatting to a few people outside when we hear a loud thump from indoors. Someone immediately notes “Krond is back!”

Overall, it was a great weekend! I look forward to what the future holds, now that Godo has been taken care of.

[Rosco Agassi]

Friday night
-Skelelele. Those are always fun and shooting my bow off the porch was 10/10 experience. I was very determined to kill one singular skeleton in the pit who kept running into the railing. I don't think I succeeded.
-Rip my two stone arrows. Gone but not forgotten.
-The fucking pit. Why did we do that? I think more of us were hurt by it than the enemies.

Saturday
-Meal plan was amazing as always. Breakfast omlette = happy dance.
-The tension while waiting for Godo was unreal. We all knew what was coming but no one knew when.
-Degren has sent Dog on a wild game of fetch to do an enchantment and I think that's hilarious.
-Having the Earth Heals scroll in the inn is amazing. Let me have fun doing something other than being a medic.
-Made Gull a little dermal ink: antidote because I was convinced he was not going to survive. I don't know if it was ever used but he's not dead so that's a win.
-On the topic of Gull, I was sitting next to him when the drums started. Goosebumps when I heard faint rhythmic thumping followed by someone (him?) yelling "DRUMS" to all of Holdfast.
-I was determined, in character to keep my head high and my mouth shut during the fight. I had no intention of leaving the porch other than to get some arrows but then I watched Godo kill Rudi and Val and figured fuck it.
-Killing blows make you feel so powerful. Gotta admit I did like hearing someone remark about Rosco's fighting from the porch.
-Watching Tony and Rob physically fight. Holy shit.
-The moment the town realized Godo was dead and Rosco + a few others just started laughing in shock. Big group hugs, tears of joy and overall excitement.
-Followed Dog into the inn after the fight. Yelled at Rudi's dead body because "Wake up you asshole. We need you." May or may not have punched Jesse** (sorry, Jesse).
**ACCIDENTALLY

Saturday night
-I had one job: Keep Ceridwynn from doing something stupid. Failed step one.
-Ian's rp was amazing. Sinead playing Ceri's sadness and emotional pain was also amazing. Had no idea what to do with the fact that their comfort was not in physical touch so I simply followed them around like a lost puppy and made sure no one else touched them either.
-Misty. Oh boy do I love Misty. Sharon's acting is always incredible but Misty just tugs at my heart strings - I have such a soft spot for mutes.
-Doing medical rp with actual fake blood was another big fun.
-It was very hard to split my attention between all the things happening. As a player I wanted to see everything happening, as a character Rosco wanted to help everyone. Eventually realized Misty would do better with Guild members and took the time to back off and go check on Ceri. Keket and Rudi had it covered.
-At one point we followed the fight into the field. I assured Ceri everything would be okay and then Degren started calling the killing blow. Thought that may have been the end.
-Pulled back into the inn to help with Misty. Put Dog in charge of watching Ceridwynn while they went on the wolf hunt.
-Ah yes, everyone is back! There's Z and Dog and Degren and — Where's Ceridwynn?!
-Orc sized rage in a halfling sized body at Lady Val. Respect is dwindling.
-Having Marr of all people follow me around to make sure I didn't do anything stupid. Got knocked out while counting mana shards because I insisted on doing something stupid.
-Marr's physical intolerance is played beautifully, as angry as it made Rosco to hear Cerdiwynn called an it and hear that their corpse would be found in the morning
-MY FUCKING SPICE. Because what do you do AFTER you knock out a community member? Steal their spice and give it to his addicted best friend.
-Gull and Rosco had a very sweet little moment. Im grateful he's got a good group of friends in Holdfast now.
-The rest of the night was lots of sillies. Two truths and a lie with Gull and friends, every time I got up to leave someone would ask what I was doing. I swear, I just had to pee.

Sunday
-Who is on the field? In purple? Oh, Lexicus! LEXICUS CERIDWYNN IS MISSING AND THEY WOULDN'T LET ME GO FIND HIM WHAT DO I DO.
-No, I did not think to tell him about Godo. I had other priorities.
-Closed mod shenanigans. Fates determined by dice are somehow so much scarier than fates determined by cast.
-Found Ceridwynn. Hungry, but alive. Called them a fucking idiot and was OOG for the last few hours of game.

[Degren Brightforge]

Friday:
- start game with a heavy sinking feeling, like there was a weight on us. Anticipation for the coming day was REAL.
- Use new magic sword ( DO NOT HEAL ME WITH IT, BUT HEAL EVERYONE ELSE WITH IT, PASS IT ON. DO NOT HEAL DEGREN WITH HIS SWORD.) Learn it can speak to me. Turns out it is a sassy lady! Woo!
- Learn how amazing magic damage is against Skeletons.
- Promptly fall in love with the pits.

Saturday:
- Fail to get ANY SLEEP AT ALL, just too worried about Godo.
- Finally get tired of listening to Krond snore for the 4th hour, so I get up to walk around, waiting patiently for 8:30am, as per the new rules.
- "The forest feels empty" x 20
- Cook some Cricket Jam. Yum!
- Dimitri(Theo?) gives me some YELLOW MERCURY for some questionable cooking. Thaumnomnomaturgy here we go!
- The drums. THE DRUMS! I see the guard coming forward. No Godo. No Godo. Fear. No Godo... BOOM. I see him duck under the tree, clad in black fur, BLACK POURING FROM HIS EYES, and all the fear just FLOWS out of me and I can't stop grinning! I'm ready to rock! Auron starts talking and starts going with the plan. He turns to lead Godo to the chosen spot. Suddenly I see his face. Something is wrong. Where is Krond? Where is Teek? DO THEY KNOW WE ARE HERE?! Panic returns. Doom. Doom. Doom. My heart begins to pound. He turns and Godo slowly starts to figure it out. He's been bamboozled. Hoodwinked. The wool has been pulled over his eyes, and he is PISSED. He starts yelling. What did he say? Who knows. I couldn't hear him over the sound of my own heart pounding in my chest. Then I see Krond turn the corner. Here we go.
- Krond starts talking. TALKING. STOP TALKING. TIME IS TICKING. THE RITUAL IS RUNNING OUT. WHY ARE YOU STILL TALKING?! FUCK HIM UP! The fight FINALLY kicks off. They start fighting, WHEN SHOULD I PULL MY NECKLACE?! The Rakash have been engaged by the town, and I'm waiting. An eternity passes and I hear, "AURON, DEGREN! NOW!" I see Auron pull his necklace. That seems like a good idea. I wait a little longer, and finally pull the stone around my neck with everything I've got. I rips away like it was held on with dental floss, and I toss the fucker into oblivion, never to be seen again. POWER. POWER OVERWHELMING!
- Flowing with UNLIMITED COSMIC POWER I start blasting. I'm throwing my arm around, "THE EARTH WILL BIND YOUR LEFT LEG, THE EARTH WILL BIND YOUR RIGHT LEG, THE EARTH WILL THROW YOU! THE EARTH WILL THROW YOU, THE EARTH WILL BIND YOUR LEFT LEG, THE EARTH WILL BIND YOUR RIGHT HAND! THE EARTH WILL BIND YOUR LEFT HAND, THE EARTH WILL THROW YOU, ET ALL"
-Krond FINALLY returns after what feels like an ETERNITY, and I break off. One of the Fang is stuck between 2 super powered Champions, and he melts (Sorry Christian. All those drugs didn't help ya, bud.)
- We turn to help the town with the army. Auron ruins them by slowing them, I turn to heal the town. I mend armor, I FUCKING RUIN some poor Rakash who made eye contact. "The Earth will bind your left leg, the earth will bind your right leg" he falls, " The earth will bind your right hand, the earth will bind your left hand" He screams. " The earth will petrify you!" Silence.
-Krond pulls out again. More screaming. My voice begins to BURN. I miscant. "The earth will Blmejnaksdjdf" Godo hears it and FUCKING BOLTS AT AURON, he makes the distance in like 3 HUGE bounds, and I finally manage to yeet out a " THE EARTH WILL PETIFY YOU!" He stumbles but makes the "MONSTROUS STRENGTH KILLING BLOW" he and Auron tumble to the ground, and Godo Just inhumanly bounds back up,
- I let loose a " AURON!!!!" scream, because I just saw him die, I start trying to heal him, "The earth with heal you 5 points!" over and over, I don't know why. I know he is dead. I just saw him die. But I must try! MIRACULOUSLY HE SURVIVED. I CHEER! I continue casting. Krond FINALLY RETURNS! The battle continues!
- The battle has shifted closer to the main army. Again, Krond is pulled away. I must lock down the man, the myth, the legend. We continue, Auron and I are working together with a coordination that only happens after YEARS of battle. Then, Exhausted-- throat burning--I miscant again, and Godo gets free.SUDDENLY, HE HURLS HIMSELF INTO THE MEDICS AND STARTS MURDERING PEOPLE LIKE SAURON SWIPING AWAY THE SOLDIERS OF GONDOR! I realize that not only have I fucked up, but now my spells can't hit him. He isn't on the earth. Only Auron can help them. I turn my spells onto the chaff, and pray Auron can do SOMETHING to get him back down.
- He finally jumps down and I can resume locking him down. He is beginning to slow down, but I'm losing it. My throat is on fire, and I can't catch my breath between cants, and holy fuck, how long have we been fighting?!
- Krond finally arrives, and at last he starts to gain the upper hand. Soon enough, Godo pulls out his trump card! HE RIPS THE FABRIC OF REALITY AND BRINGS FORTH HIS ULTIMATE WEAPON: BLACK BLOOD RAIN!
- Auron and I are out of position. We're all the way on the opposite side of the field. I can see people gathering together under the Fabulous Frond, but we're too far away. We'll never make it. 45 seconds, I burn my last Elder Ring antidote (Where did the other ones go? How many times did Godo ALMOST KILL ME?! WHO KNOWS?!), I turn to Auron who is ,like me, being crushed beneath the weight of the rain. He speaks "We're too far off. We'll never make it." I reach back and grab a water mana, "With water I untaint you!" I lob it and start his timer over again. We continue surviving for TOO LONG, and finally the conga line of life makes its way to us. We get pulled back and dragged to the finale with Godo.
-Krond and Godo begin to battle for the last time and the town starts to cheer him on with song! GO KROND, and then Godo falls to his knees. AND THE PEOPLE STILL KEEP SINGING. I CAN SEE GODO AND KROND TALKING AND I CAN'T HEAR A FUCKING THING HOLY FUCK, STOP! THE SONG FINALLY ENDS AND GULL YELLS "ONE MORE TIME". I TURN, "CAN YOU PLEASE FUCKING NOT? I'VE WAITED 2 FUCKING YEARS FOR THIS MOMENT AND I'D LOVE TO HEAR IT, THANKS!"I turn to finally see Krond strike him down, throwing his massive sword as he does so, and Godo is no more. The battle is finished. We have won. (I had Tony give me a play by play. So I missed nothing.)
- With Godo gone, the town finally manages to breathe again. We handle the remainder of the day well, dealing with the Emotional RP ( I don't do this well unless I'm IN THE MOMENT), so I don't remember a whole lot of it.
- We fail to save Dimitri. A crushing defeat. We are frustrated because the last time this happened the person just FELT EXTREME pain at the spot where we had to do the thing, and we had NO SUCH HINT this time. None! But I digress. Dimitri wolfs out and maims the ever loving FUCK out of me, then walks through 3 tables to escape.
- we eventually bring him down, and I decide I must kill him, but I get to the 5th killing blow count... and I can't do it. I am met with indecision. I am the reason this has happened. It is up to me to fix it, but I can't blame Dimitiri, my ally, my friend, my brother for my mistakes.
- he heals and attacks, eventually fleeing into the woods... We try to hunt him down but his speed is too great. We will never catch up to him. We return in shambles, sickened by failure.
- I spend the rest of the night in misery. Failure is the order of the night.

Sunday:
- I sleep like a log, too tired after the events of last night to even worry about my failings. I awake around 5am, regardless, and get ready. I head into the woods, not to gather (the woods feel empty), but to mope. I wander around, first visiting Lysander's grave, I speak to him and explain the events of the last 2 days. I take the time to wander the woods alone, eating berries, singing to myself, and just trying to get used to the woods.
- During my time in the woods I take solace in the fact that it is SO quiet that I can't be snuck up on. With a mana in hand, I'm supremely confident that I could blend before I got into any SERIOUS danger, just in case.
- I find a little cushion with what seems like REAL LEATHER on it. I begin trying to work the leather off. Turns out it is vinyl. And moldy. Gross. I toss it and decide it is time to move in. I turn to leave and there is The Spirit of the Forest (Casted by Rob) about 7 feet away from me. WHEN DID HE GET THERE? HOW LONG HAS HE BEEN THERE?! WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK!?
- The Spirit of the Forest just looks at me, and I nope the fuck away. Who knows what it does? Maybe it's dangerous?! I turn, and it is quite inquisitive looking. I turn around, "Hey little guy", and he runs away for a few seconds before he turns around and looks at me again. Does he want me to follow him? I move a little closer and he does it again. I sit down, showing my back to it. We interact silently for what feels like 30 minutes or so? Eventually some fucker rings a GIANT FUCKING DINNER BELL and the Spirit fucking BOLTS. I had fun. (Fun note. Turns out Rob was there the WHOLE time. Great!)
- Sunday is, for me, quite quiet. I enjoyed it.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
-Sage. Bull rushing you into the pit was an amazing opportunity. Thank you! You yelling "No! NOOOOOOOOooooooooo......" as you fell made my day.
- Christian. I shot you in the face. Great stuff. Hearing that "THWOP" as it hit you in THE FOREHEAD and you yelling "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" was timeless.

[Malva]

The Godo Fight:
-I'm so proud of us for actually pulling off our plan so well. All of our preparations paid off!
-Morning Rakash went well except for the stuff getting stolen (but we got it back!)
-Getting to test out some Awareness 5 : D
-We're all just chilling on the deck, there's a noise in the distance below our threshold of noticing it... until we all jump to a start because DRUMS
-I run in to put my armor on and top up my spice flask. I come back out to Godo's SO THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE CHOSEN?
-Doesn't occur to me that I do not hear the drums again for the entire fight
-We totally melted the Honour Guard! Here's to good planning
-I walk up on Helene's alchemist like Oh!! This is my job
-I get a couple hits on her and she starts spamming gas cloud sleep. I keep focus minding it and by the time I start to think how many states do I have left she switches to explosives. Didn't have a counter to that.
-I wake up to her being nowhere to be seen. Well, if I didn't kill her, at least I got some hits in and wasted a lot of her potions.
-Got a couple hits in on Ratkat because Sudden Clarity is a pretty good counter to Void Kills
-RIP whatever Fang Christian was, didn't get to see 'em
-Godo getting loose for 4 seconds netted 2 deaths :')
-Running to save Dog from a killing blow knowing full well I couldn't make it in time
-Raging out and avenging him in one shot
-I turn around and he's alive again?? "He picked his head up and put it back on"
-Chanting for Krond!! Good fight you two
-It rained poison blood :'D not healthy
-Big group hug when we all won!!

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